Having earned the title of Procrastinator-In-Chief for my lack of articles these past few months, I’ll dive straight in.

Earlier this year I attended my first Firsts fair. Notwithstanding the clumsy title, many consider Firsts: London’s Rare Books Fair to be the leading rare books fair in Europe. While it may not be the biggest, it does tick all the other boxes: longevity (Est. 2013), affiliation (Antiquarian Booksellers Association), quality of exhibitors (prestigious from across the globe), and diversity of offerings (ancient manuscripts and rare maps to modern and contemporary first editions).

As the more attentive amongst you will have noticed, in my previous article I signed off: Yours Deceptively. Why deceptively, you ask? Well, because the article was not entirely mine; the first draft was written by the Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool Chat GPT.

I knew I wanted to write a mini-guide to Paris bookshops, and I knew that such an article would by definition consist mainly of practical guidance. Sure, I’d be the one selecting which bookshops to recommend and I’d have some opinions on some of the bookshops, but on the whole it would be a general information article. It was my chance to experiment with AI in the context of writing and here’s what I learned.

If London feels like the centre of the rare book world, and if Dublin feels like Europe’s greatest repository of pubs, then Paris definitely feels like home to the greatest number of beautiful bookshops in one city. With an infinite range of styles, languages, and specialisations, there is something for everyone. My two-day stop in Paris on the scenic route home from London (see previous article) was just enough to get a taste, which I now share here.

When exploring a new world, blend in with the natives; in this case that meant starting my exploration of London’s rare book world wearing standard-issue Bibliophile uniform: tousled hair, abundantly pocketed clothes, and the standard issue Some-Lit.Fest-I-Was-At tote bag. The goal of my visit to London was to answer two questions: Who Buys Rare Books? and, What Makes a Rare Book Worth Buying? As you’ll see, the answers to both these questions turned out to be pretty intuitive.

From the Department of Short-and-Sweet, I just wanted to let you all know, Dear Readers, about an upcoming leg on my journey towards a better understanding of the world of rare books. For the week of 15 April I’m spending a few days in London, Paris, Geneva and probably that gem of a town, Vevey, exploring rare book shops, ordinary book shops, and any auctions or events that may be on.

As part of my effort to demystify the sometimes pretentious nature of the book collecting world I figured I’d better start, as all good things do, with words. There's no shortage of book-collecting glossaries knocking about but even they seem a little longwinded so I’ve sifted through some of them and made a shortlist of terms I’ve seen around and didn’t previously know the meaning of. As we’re still pretty early in this journey I for one haven’t yet pinned down the degree to which the terms described below add or detract value from a book but I’ll update this glossary as I learn more and meanwhile invite any of you who already know the answer to email us on hello@wowgstaad.com.

When you don't know where to start, start at the beginning. I didn't know where to start my learning journey through the world of rare books so I started broad and at the beginning: books, bookshops, and the people who populate them.